The Yorkville hotel recently rebranded and redecorated its main-floor restaurant, as it often does. In this iteration, it’s decked out like Versace meets The Old Vic, where leopard print is layered atop Union Jacks and tartan. Prints of 19th-century London leading lady Fanny Fitzwilliam hang in the bar. A more sedate back room, with white tablecloths, functions as a built-in VIP area.

Because the Windsor Arms is a luxury hotel, there are international newspapers to read at the bar and staff to hold doors.

There is also an unfocused menu, run by chef Jan Van Gijssel, that covers everything from comfort foods to vegan dishes like a mock Reuben sandwich made from tempeh.

Matzo ball soup ($9) sounds more appealing. The yellow chicken broth is mild and not too salty, with a confetti of carrots for colour. Three somewhat shiny orbs — sinkers, not floaters — win points for homeyness; they’re made according to the recipe of hotel owner George Friedmann’s mother, Lisa.

But New Age healthy eating is a focus here, as in shredded kale salad ($12) made interesting by garlicky tahini dressing, the tiniest currants, plump sun-dried tomato strips and fresh walnut halves. Or there’s the Hollywood-sounding Power Fix drink ($9), a liquid meal of berries blitzed with coconut water, vanilla protein powder and kale (its colour overridden by blueberries, its flavour by honey).

Still, I’d take the steak ($25) over the earnest but boring vegan black-bean burrito ($15) any day, given the tenderloin is beautifully seared and comes with buttery mashed potatoes, arugula gussied up with crumbled blue cheese and silky green peppercorn sauce.

Can’t say the service is as accomplished, not when the waiter forgets to bring cutlery until after the food arrives and serves the wrong tea ($5), ordered from the adjoining tea lounge.

About that: It’s hard to pour loose-leaf tea without a strainer, downright hazardous when the pot leaks boiling liquid into your lap. The ho-hum cookies ($8) we order do little to assuage the pain.

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